The specificity and the affective sign of autobiographical memories in individuals with depressive disorders and alcohol use disorder

Abstract

Aim. Mental disorders may disrupt autobiographical memory (AM). An example is overgeneral memories - without details, generalized or semantic. This paper assesses the functioning of AM in a depressive episode (DEP) and alcohol use disorder (ALC). Method. The study compared two study groups: hospitalized patients with DEP and ALC, and two control groups: people hospitalized for gastroenterological conditions (CON) and healthy individuals (PAN) (N = 39 for each group; mean age: 46.0 ± 13.6 years; no differences). The specificity of AM was examined by the Autobiographical Memory Test. Participants rated memories in terms of vividness, affective intensity and sign. Results. DEP and ALC groups recalled fewer specific memories than the control groups (p <0.001 for: all, positive and negative cue words), with the lowest results in DEP. Clinical groups recalled also more negative and less positive memories (p <0.001) than the control groups, with a deficit of positive ones in DEP and an excess of negative memories in ALC. An analysis of non-specific responses revealed that the ALC group recalled more "extended" memories than the CON group (p <0.005) and more "categorical" ones than control groups (p <0.05). The DEP group remembered more "semantic associations" than the PAN group (p <0.001). Conclusions. The results confirmed the presence of OGM in both clinical groups. ALC disrupts the mechanism of generating specific memories to a lesser extent than mood disorders. Moreover, subjects from the clinical groups assess their past more pessimistically than the controls, with a reduced number of positive memories in people with a depressive episode, and probably an increased number of negative ones in people with ALC.